How To Turn Your D's to A's!

Midterms week is just about over, and maybe your grades didn’t turn out exactly how you wanted them. No worries, it’s never too late! The semester’s still young, and you have a whole month and a half to turn that grade around. Here are a couple of tips to turn your failures into victories!

#1: You need to cultivate discipline and determination

This is probably the most important tip you’ll need to succeed. Your grade isn’t just going to change on its own. You have to put in the work and effort, surpassing the work you’ve been put forward previously.

Its one thing to want your grade to change, but to put in the effort and actually invest yourself to that personal project will make all the difference.

This means not going out to a party when you know that you have a paper due in 6 hours, and putting your phone on ‘Do Not Disturb,’ while your friends are having a heated conversation in your group chat, and need your input. What’ll really make you stand out is going to office hours. Sometimes when teachers see that you’re trying your hardest improve your grade, they can be more lenient on your behalf, and tend to overlook some of those grades that took you down. Some professors may even offer extra credit opportunities to boost your grade!

Believe it or not, most professors aren’t plotting your downfall and do want to see you succeed. Furthermore, having and utilizing this tip will make all these other tips accessories and a piece of cake.

#2: Change your studying style

This might seem a little intimidating considering the fact that you’ve become accustomed to this way of learning for a large portion of your life. If your grades aren’t looking to hot- I hate to break it to you, but something is wrong.

If you’re putting in the time and work ethic and your grades aren’t reflecting as such, then it may be time to utilize some new strategies. Some that you can try are using colored pens instead of black or blue, making flashcards, creating a catchy song that aligns with your notes, or maybe even going to the library if you usually don’t. These things will help you concentrate.

Ultimately, you have to slowly change and enhance your studying style in order for your grades to reflect what hard work you’re putting in!

#3: STOP PROCRASTINATING

Procrastinating is literally one of the worst things that you can do when it comes to your education, especially when it comes to submitting work in school. If you have an assignment due at a certain time, instead of putting it off until the last minute, start now!

Telling yourself that you have time, and that you’ll do it later will just make you push it off until you’re scrambling to make everything work 5 minutes before its due. Doing your projects and assignments on time will make it easier to ensure that you’ve done the project to the best of your ability, and it also gives you time to do your other projects in a timely fashion as well. Believe it or not, doing your assignment on time will relieve stress and let you have more time to analyze and organize all your other assignments.

Speaking of which…

#4: Organization

It’ll be a lot easier to avoid procrastination if you know when each assignment is due, and how long you have to do them.

Keeping a planner or a calendar handy can help you organize not only assignments, but tests, events, chill time, and any other activity you plan to do in the near future. Although you may think that your brain can remember everything that you have to do, it can’t. You most likely have 4-6 classes, and they probably have multiple unique assignments.

As soon as you find out something, write it down! Technology has become an asset to this because you can simply pull out your phone and make a reminder and voila! You’ve become the Organization Queen, and your test scores will thank you for it.

#5: Relax

It’s ok to take a break sometimes. Burning yourself out consistently will never be beneficial. Stress will make you unfocused; sleep deprived, and depressed which are all terrible qualities when it comes to test taking, and your overall mental and physical health.

The best time to relax for me is right after an exam, or right after I know that I’ve soaked up all of the information, and done all that I possibly can to ace a test. Times as such are typically the best times because there’s always those free days right after a test where the class regroups and starts introducing the next topic. So chill!

Get some popcorn and watch some Netflix, call your friends and go to the mall, and SLEEP! You’ve done all you can and your hard work will show.

With these tips, you’ll be able to achieve not only sensational grades in class, but strategies that’ll help you in your future jobs and your life in general.

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About The Author

I am a student at the University at Albany majoring in English and a minor in Philosophy and Psychology. I know, its a lot.

I typically like to write about just about anything, and I'm really corny so feel free to make fun of all my cheeky commentary. Hope this is helpful to anyone who ever wants to just relax and learn something new.